The budget outlines you anticipated project expenses and the budget justification is a narrative that provides further detail about how these funds will be used

Your Proposal Analyst will help you build your budget and guide you through allowable and unallowable costs

Once awarded, your final approved budget becomes part of the contractual agreement for how and what you can spend; it is important to build your budget as accurately as possible to meet your research needs

Overhead, or indirect costs, are administrative expenses that are required to operate the University, for example lights, building maintenance, library services, administrative functions (payroll, travel, etc).

Overhead is always applied to a proposal unless the solicitation explicitly states otherwise. If a solicitation limits or does not allow overhead, an email approval from your Department Head is required indicating he/she is aware of and approves the limited, or no, overhead; see the Budget Exception Policy (PDF).

ORA defaults to using the on-campus overhead rate unless over 50% of the research done by the PI and/or co-PIs (not GRAs) is occurring off-campus.

Mines calculates overhead based on the Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC). The MTDC base is calculated by excluding capital expenditures (buildings, individual items of equipment, alterations and renovations), the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000, participant support costs, and graduate student tuition, fees, and insurance.

Subcontractors are partners in the research are required to fulfill the same requirements of the PI i.e. publications, advising students, etc. They have programmatic decision making and their performance is integral to the overall success of the project. They complete a full proposal (scope of work, budget, and justification).

Consultants/Independent Contractors perform the ancillary services requested (lab testing, printing, etc) on the project. The work requested is part of their regular business operations and they provide the same goods or services for sale to others. They do not implement solutions or have the ability to publish on the results.

All research proposals are submitted for routing through Cayuse, Mines’ online proposal and award management system. Cayuse can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection and works best on Firefox and Internet Explorer; Safari will not allow you to upload documents.

Start a new proposal by going to mines.cayuse424.com, log in with your multipass username and password, click on Cayuse SP (for Start Proposal!), and click on Start New Proposal

At a minimum you need to enter:

Sponsor - if it’s not listed, please use Other as the placeholder and provide your Analyst with the Sponsor’s name and address so they can be entered

Short Project Name – PI last name, sponsor, and due date

Project Start and End Dates

Activity Code – typically this is Research, or for a Fellowship mark Fellowship

Award Admin Dept – this is the Center or Department responsible for managing the award

Primary Administrative Contact – the Administrative contact for the Award

Login to Cayuse, click on Dept Approval Inbox and on the proposal needing to be certified

At the top, under ‘Proposal Routing Status’ the Proposal Number is listed, click the PDF icon next to Proposal Number. The PDF allows you to easily see all sections of the proposal including Sponsor, Research Team with effort (including co-PIs and Senior Personnel), Budget, Cost Share, Subcontractors, Abstract, and the Proposal Attachments

Attachments cannot be viewed in the pdf. To view attachments, click the paperclip icon at the far right side of the orange bar and attachments can be opened individually

Grant Administrators – Help manage your award by reviewing and reconciling expenses in accordance with the Sponsor’s requirements, assist if your account is in deficit, and work with you to closeout your research award.

It is very common for Sponsors to fund research at a different dollar amount than was proposed. Your Proposal Analyst can help you with your rebudget and any other documents required by the Sponsor. The Contracts Team often gives the Proposal Analysts the heads up that a revised budget is required and the Analyst works with the PI to ensure costs are outlined correctly.

An At-Risk Account allows PIs to begin charging expenses while funding is waiting to arrive or being negotiated. Signatures from the PI and Department Head or Center Director must accompany all At-Risk requests. ORA reviews all requests to evaluate risk to Mines and the likelihood funds will be received by the Sponsor.

At-Risk requests should include an estimate of funds needed to cover costs for the next 90 days.

Grant: A grant is an award given to carry out a proposed scope of work. The sponsor has no substantial involvement in the work. Faculty use best efforts to follow the budget and have flexibility in adjusting the scope of work. Grants typically come from NSF, NIH, and ONR.

Contract: A Contract clearly identifies goods or services in the Scope of Work that the sponsor wants completed. The sponsor may act as technical overseer and may have substantial involvement. Contracts have a more rigid scope of work, firm timelines to complete the work, and deliverable requirements. Sometimes, terms and conditions are required when submitting a proposal and confirmed prior to accepting a contract. Contracts typically come from DOE, National Laboratories, or private companies.

Incremental funds are a portion of the whole amount of funds committed to a project. Providing a portion of the total funding gives the sponsor more control on expenses. Many times sponsors will limit the amount of funding by budget period, to determine a GO/NO GO decision, or to ensure certain tasks/milestones are met under the agreement.

Yes, the Office of Research Administration has different types of agreements that support research at Mines. For more information on the different types of agreements managed through ORA, including Sponsored Research Agreements, Non-Disclosure (Confidentiality) Agreements, MOUs, IP Management, and others, request information by emailing awards@mines.edu.

A company may ask you to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to discuss a possible research project. Anytime you receive an NDA, please forward to awards@mines.edu for the ORA Contracts Team to review.

ORA will review and negotiate terms that are acceptable for both parties and have the faculty member co-sign the agreement to acknowledge the terms and conditions.

Individual researchers do not have the authority to sign on behalf of Mines.

A Letter of Intent informs faculty that their proposal has been selected for award. At this stage, the award is coming but the formal agreement has not been received. PIs cannot spend at this point unless they have an approved At-Risk.

An Award Agreement will provide the details of the award, and any terms and conditions the sponsor requires in the performance of the project including the approved period of performance, budget, deliverables, payment terms, publication rights, etc. Frequently, Mines does not receive the full amount of the award and the funding may be limited to a Budget Period or other parameters.

Once the award is signed and the award has been set up by your Grant Administrator, the PI will receive an automated email from ora@mines.edu with the Cayuse award set up notice. At this point, PIs can begin spending.

Subcontracts are drafted by the ORA Contracts Team based on the proposal provided by the Subcontractor and the requirements of the Award Agreement. If you would like to include specific terms (such as deliverable schedules), please be sure to let your Contract Administrator know.

AFBR is a user-friendly Cognos report that offers a snapshot of an individual’s fund balance and activity.

PIs, co-PIs, and Fund Managers can access the report by logging into Trailhead, selecting the My Funds tab, and the AFBR Cognos report will generate automatically.

Fiscal Officers, Program Administrators and others can access the report via Cognos, navigating to Public Folders ‎> Finance ‎> General Campus ‎> Controller Campus ‎> AFBR and running the report ‘AFBR-L1-summary’. The user will be prompted to select from a pulldown list of current PI, Co-PI, and Fund Manager names.

If you do not know where the employee should have been paid, contact your Grant Administrator who can research where this employee should have been charged and can spearhead the process to make this change

A cost transfer is an after-the-fact reallocation of an expense that moves from one fund to another. Costs should be charged to the correct Banner fund number for that sponsored project when first incurred.

It may be necessary to transfer a misappropriated expense from one fund to another. Such transfers require careful monitoring for compliance with Mines’ policies, federal regulations and cost principals for sponsored projects. Please submit a completed Journal Entry form (PDF) and appropriate documentation to your Grant Administrator

Backup documentation - All cost transfers must be supported by back-up documentation that fully explains the error and should include a justification that clearly shows:

Where the incorrect charge currently resides-which includes:

a. A copy of the fund detail that shows the fund number and period charged

b. An explanation for why the expense was charged to the incorrect Fund and how the expense is allowable on the receiving Banner Fund (e.g., attach documentation of sponsor approval or justification for the charge if necessary)

c. The allocation method used if transferring expenses to multiple Funds

d. How systematic reasons which may have caused the problem to be repeated have been addressed and corrected

e. If the transfer is more than 90 days old, please explain the reason for the delay in the timely processing of the transfer

ORA will send final financial reports and final invoices to the sponsor. ORA will also send final patent and property reports if needed.

The PI is responsible for sending any technical reports. When a project has technical reports, please email a copy of the cover page describing the type of report and a transmittal letter or email showing when it was emailed to your Grant Administrator to complete the project file.

Fixed Price Award: If all funding has been received and there is a surplus after all expenses have cleared, the available funds can be transferred to the PI’s research development fund. The transfer is based upon the remaining available funding less the IDC charged on the project. Review of the remaining balance must be approved to be transferred if the available balance is more than 10% of the funded amount.

Cost Reimbursable Award: Mines can only receive payment for allowable expenses; if there is remaining budget at the end of the project, it will be removed and the project will close short. These unused balances cannot not be transferred to the PI’s Research Development fund.